VISIT TO MOYALE

At the end of November Ursula had a workshop and annual review to attend at the Moyale Red Cross branch, the Swiss Red Cross’ project branch. I was able to accompany the team for the 10 day visit to Moyale.

The team having coffee

The Red Cross driver, Bekele, on the left and Aschalew, programme coordinator on the right.

Moyale in the South of Ethiopia is really two towns with the same name divided by the international border with Kenya. The border post is in the middle of the divided town. It is about 750km drive from Addis Ababa and takes a good two days to drive. The road is not good over much of its length, and passes through numerous small towns and villages, which slow progress considerably.

Busy little towns

And of course there are the inevitable camels

Camels taking a break on a really good stretch of road.

And cattle

And donkeys, but I will deal with the donkeys later.

The drive down was uneventful except for the unseasonal rains. As you may have picked up from the news there have been severe rains and flooding in Kenya, and in Ethiopia we get the tail end of it all. (As I write this it is pouring with rain again. And this is supposed to be the dry season!) This could have serious consequences as it is the harvest season and the grain crops are supposed to be drying. Potentially much of the crop could be ruined. This also explains why many of my photos are taken in overcast and cloudy conditions.

The farmers are just starting to harvest when the unseasonal rains arrived.

Much of the drive is down the Rift valley with the forested escarpment rising above the fertile valley plains. The houses in many of the villages are still of the round hut type, known as tukuls, and built using a “wattle and daub” technique, with eucalyptus poles replacing the wattle.

Fairly typical homstead of tukuls

However, more modern styles are becoming popular using the same technique, but on a rectangular plan and with corrugated iron roofs. When finished these are often painted in bright, eye-catching colours.

More modern house using same wattle and daub technique

On the way down and again on the way back we stayed at a town called Arba Minch in the “tourist hotel.” Actually quite good. The rooms are nothing to speak of, and like all hotels in Ethiopia, over-priced for what you get, but with lovely tree filled garden, almost like sitting in a wood having your sundowner beer, and then supper. Unfortunately, we arrived fairly late in the evening and left early in the morning, so no photos this time.

The second day was another long drive with frequent stops for coffee, or bunna as it is called here. This is served in small espresso sized cups and is really very strong even by espresso standards. However, it is delicious and our driver, Bekele, is a connoisseur of bunna and know all the best coffee shops en route . If not satisfied with the coffee at one establishment he is not above going to another for a second cup. We reached Moyale in mid-afternoon and after a brief stop at the Red Cross office, booked in to our hotel.

Moyale is a medium sized, by Ethiopia standards, town straddling the border with Kenya. The main runs through the centre and down to the border. Locals cross freely in both directions, but not so easy for foreigners, faranji as we are called. Traders on foot cross each day trade carrying their goods as they hawk up and down the roads.

Moyale main road, at a quiet time, running down to the border. The low hills are in Kenya, with an Orthodox church on the left.

Like most of Ethiopia there are large churches and mosques everywhere. And both religions use loudspeakers mounted on their spires so that the entire town can hear them. The building on the left in the picture is of an Orthodox church that frequently kept us awake and on one memorable night, started at around midnight and only finished at about 7 in the morning. The Imams in their mosques are far more considerate and only have the call to prayer, lasting at most 30 minutes, usually much less.

The orthodox transmission seems to consist of a long tuneless wailing, pausing only to gather breath for the next assault. There don’t appear to be any words that we could make out and the only thing you can do is to suffer it. The volume was so loud that even pulling the pillow over your head made no discernible difference.

The people of Ethiopia are religiously very observant and the two dominant religions are the faiths are the Christian Ethiopian Orthodox church, and Islam. To the left of the road in the picture above is Somali State and on the right, Oromia. This has led to some tensions and even violence in the recent past, but all seemed quiet while we were there. Muslim and Christians are found in both states, but there are probably more Muslims than Christians in Somali, and vice versa.

Although Muslim women do wear headscarves and robes, very few of them wear black and the colourful array can be quite eye-catching  as they go about their business their robes billowing in the breeze.

Typical women’s dress for the Muslim women. Much more colourful than we expected.

The main road to the border is the only tarred road and all the side roads are all dirt, many of them badly eroded. Most business takes place on the main road, restaurants and coffee shops and everywhere shops selling mattresses. I have never seen so many mattress shops on one street and it seems to be similar in all the little towns we passed through. Mattress shops proliferate.

Fairly typical roadside trading. The young man is taking potatoes and tomatoes to sell at the roadside. Note the mattress shop at upper right.

The side roads are mainly residential with some street trading for things like water containers. Water is a serious problem in Moyale, basically there is very little. There is a plan to pump water from a deep borehole some 40 km away, but this will be hugely expensive and will take some time to build.  So, everywhere you go you see people carrying or selling the yellow 25 litre containers that are used to collect water in.

Eroded side streets and women with water containers.

The food is almost entirely Ethiopian, injera, the large pancake made from a grain call teff. People eat it for all three meals a day, although sometimes there is the interesting combination of pasta served on injera. Fusion food? The beer is good but not much else is available besides the usual soft drinks. And fruit juices. A popular mix is a shake with layers of blended fruit. Our favourite was the mixture of mango, avocado and papaya. Served garnished with 3 or four dates or grapes floating on top.

Bird watching from the restaurant balcony with the layered shakes for refreshment.

While we were in town the Red Cross volunteers held their monthly clean-up day along the main street – there doesn’t appear to be any municipal rubbish collection service.

The volunteers begin work

The rubbish is collected up in piles along the street by the volunteers

Air pollution or garbage?

And burnt on the street, which does help to keep the town a bit cleaner, but does nothing for the air quality.

At the end of the workshop there was the obligatory group photo of the participants, and I thought we should include a photo of the two volunteer security guards for the Red Cross building. Moyale is in an area where it is traditional and still common for men to wear sarongs.

The workshop participants on the steps of the half-completed Red Cross building.

Security guards in traditional sarongs - occupational therapy for the elderly.

In the evenings after work and once in the very early morning, Ursula and I did manage a bit of birding, sometimes accompanied by Red cross staff who were very interested that someone should be so interested in birds, so I thought I would include a couple of bird pictures for your enjoyment. Although the time we were able to spend was limited, it was very good. As they say, it is quality not quantity that counts.

A pair of red-billed hornbills…..

and the aptly named Superb Starling.

On the drive back to Addis Aschelew received the exciting news that his wife had given birth to a daughter! He had hoped to be there for the birth, which was not due for another two weeks. Needless to say we all went straight to the hospital to greet and congratulate her. Aschelew was a bit shocked that the baby had arrived so early but was rapidly adjusting to his change of role of husband to that of parent and father.

DONKEYS

Now the promised few words on donkeys. Donkeys are ubiquitous and are the principle means of transport for most people in the villages, and even a few in Addis. They are used as draught animals bringing in the harvest,

Bringing home the harvest.

pulling cartloads of water containers,

The donkeys seem to be looked after and well treated. They are an important econominc resource.

Or simply with water containers strapped to their back

Each container has 25 litres water, so the total load is a bit more than 50 kg for each donkey. Probably easier work than pulling a heavily loaded cart.

It is difficult to imagine rural life in Ethiopia without these “beasts of burden”. Generally, they seem well treated and are often just left to their own devices. It is common to see apparently unattended animals wandering down the road or across the fields. Observation suggests that driving a cart is the prerogative of men and teenage boys, while walking with the donkeys carrying water containers is the work of women and smaller children, both boys and girls. Gender divisions are everywhere. Look at the workshop participants.

And with that thought I leave you until the next blog.

Best wishes to all, and if we don’t communicate with you before the New Year, may you all have a wonderful festive season.

Love to All

Chris and Ursula.

Vist to Awash

October was our last month in the B’more hotel. From the 1st November we moved into our little cottage in Mekanisa, a suburb of Addis.

During October Ursula went to Switzerland for two weeks for a Swiss Red Cross workshop, leaving me in Ethiopia. However, all was not doom and gloom because I had made contact with some Americans, also keen birders. And Cornell University has what they call the Big Bird Day on the 19th of October when people around the world are encouraged to go out and count the birds they see at sites of their choosing.

Three of several hundred Glossy Ibis we saw on the Big Bird Count

In the end only 2 of us took part from Addis, a man called Dan and myself. We went to three sites and saw 80 + species, which wasn’t too bad considering that we are both fairly new to Ethiopian birds. We also saw some Gelada baboons, which look more frightening than they really are.

Gelada alpha male observing the world in quiet contentment

Gelada females leading their young up a cliff

Before we left B’more hotel the owner had a barbecue (braai) for all the residents of his hotel. It is something he apparently does each year at this time to encourage his residents to socialise and mix. The “Braai Master”, naturally enough, was a South African – only South Africans know how to do this properly – who also supplied Karoo boerewors he had brought back from South Africa specially for the occasion.

Lucas (left) the braai master at work

Our landlord, the owner of the B’more

In some ways it was sad to leave B’more, the staff are friendly and the place is very comfortable, but for us it was too much in the city centre, too polluted and the neighbourhood too crowded.

The house we moved into is in a much more residential suburb, cobbled streets, local neighbourhood shops and so forth. Chickens calling at dawn compete with the mournful cries of the Yellow-billed kites later in the day. We feel safe to walk about in the streets after Ursula gets back from work and I do a lot of our shopping in the local, small shops - what South Africans would call “spazas”.

The house has a small garden with 2 guava trees and an Abyssinian olive tree. These 3 are now in fruit and so much frequented by birds, in particular Mousebirds, the juvenile delinquents of the bird world, and Bulbuls, which behave much like old fashioned Teddy boys, for those of you old enough to know what I mean.

Mountain Thrush in our new garden

Unfortunately, before we moved in, I had painted the inside of the cupboards and they were still smelling strongly of paint, so Ursula politely declined to put her clothes in them until the smell had worn off. So we lived from suitcases for a couple of weeks.

It is nice to be able to cook properly again even though the kitchen is shall we say, not large. And in the evening we are able to sit out on the veranda and watch the birds enjoying the bird bath I have put up, while we enjoy a St. George beer or two before supper.

On the 8th November we went to Awash National Park with another birding friend, Ian. This was a lovely trip and we made a long weekend of it, going up on the Friday and returning on the Sunday. (The occasion being Mohammed’s birthday and so a public holiday for some). Awash park is about 250km from Addis and the drive up is “interesting”. It is the main road to Djibouti, Ethiopia’s access to the sea, and the road is an almost solid stream of lorries bearing large containers, petrol tankers and the like. All trying to overtake each other in the face of the oncoming traffic, us. We had an Ethiopian driver, which is really the most sensible way to travel, one who knows the roads and the behaviour of the other drivers on the road.

The park itself is beautiful and the lodge is on the top of a cliff overlooking the falls, a bit reminiscent of a scaled down Victoria falls. After a hard day’s birding it was so relaxing to sit there with a couple of beers and watch the crocodiles catching the last rays of the sun on the banks far below.

The Awash Falls viewed from the restaurant

The park is well used by local people for grazing their cattle so it is not a pristine park in the South African sense, and there are no threatening animals left, so it is quite safe to get out of your car and walk about. There are several mammal species left, in particular the Black-backed jackal and the Ethiopian Oryx, as well as several smaller antelope. But the main attraction of the park is the birdlife.

Abyssinian Roller at the Lodge

Fish Eagle eating a fish it is holding in its talons

Ian, our companion and organiser of the trip is a keen birder and a bit of a “twitcher”, interested mainly in ticking birds off as he sees them, whereas we are more of birdwatchers, preferring to spend time watching and observing. This meant that perhaps we didn’t spend as long as we would have liked doing "our thing” but it was a really good introduction to the park and we would love to go back there sometime in the not too distant future.

Ursula bird watching with Mekennon the driver

Besia Oryx

Black-backed Jackal

On the Sunday before we left back to Addis we visited a second park nearby, the Hallaydeghe Asebot National Park. Here we were lucky to see 2 Secretary birds, a whole flock of ostriches and much else besides.

Ursula bird watching with guard on a termite mound

The drive back to Addis was not quite as fraught as the drive out as at least we were moving in the same direction as most of the traffic. Nevertheless, it is not a journey that I would like to drive, at least not yet. More familiarity with the prevailing road safety ethos is necessary.

And there are camels everywhere, in the park, on the main roads, staring rather superciliously at the world.

Camels and……..

more camels

And so back to getting the house in order so that it becomes a home for the next couple of years, with at least some of the creature comforts conducive to civilised life.

Love to all

Chris and Ursula

South African visit.

It was a spur-of-the-moment sort of thing. Our friend Leah was leaving South Africa to take up a position with Trickle Up, a US ngo working with the poorest of the poor. Leah would be based in New York and she decided to to make a road trip from Johannesburg to Cape Town to say a temporary farewell to SA. She invited us to join her, we jumped at the chance to to leave the exigencies of Addis and so on September 6th we flew to South Africa to join Leah on this farewell trip.

On the first evening in Johannesburg we attended a quite remarkable dance performance called Cion. Really outstanding, a mixture of dance and music that was stunning musically (variations on Bolero) and visually with the Soweto Gospel Choir. If you can find it on the internet do look it up. (If you type in Joburg Theatre Cion you get links to facebook and Youtube videos).

Leah’s flat is onthe 10th floor on a ridge and has a magnificent view west across Jhb. Unfortunately it was quite misty while we were there, but it gives a good idea of how wooded Jhb is.

On the Saturday we left Jhb on our trip, planned carefully to avoid the Free State, that boring flatland at the centre of SA, and maximise our experience of the Karroo. Google led us on some imaginative byways through minor towns as we explored unknown, to us, parts of the country. By early afternoon we had reached Kimberly where we stopped for lunch at a roadside stop.

Dry and flat, the last stop before entering the karroo. Lunch at the roadside.

We spent the night at a beautiful old farmhouse now conference centre and small hotel called Melton Wold. It is on a large farm about 30 km west of Victoria West for those of you who know their SA geography. A very dry landscape, Victoria West has had no rain for 7 years, and the country was looking parched and all the dams are dry. Game farming with a few sheep seems to be just about the only viable agriculture here without irrigation. And everywhere you go you see windmills pumping underground water, and we were told that solar pumps are increasingly popular so you don’t see much of the pumping. One wonders how long this is viable and what the extraction / recharge rates are for the water in this arid landscape.

Melton Wold is kept relatively green by borehole water

The next day we drove west through the Karroo toward Nieuwoudtville and Vanrhynsdorp. As we moved west the country became progressively wetter and clumps of daisies started appearing at the side of the road and in the veldt. Even standing water in places! The peak of the wild flower season had passed but it was lovely to see the few remaining examples of what we had missed.

Roadside daisies, orange predominant at this time of year.

From there we turned south to Citrusdal and then into the mountains where we spent the night at a beautiful 2-bedroom house on the Boschkloof Farm. The “cottage” was at the end of a valley with the mountains rising behind us, a stream running down the edge of the property, and the valley opening onto the orange plantations further down. Needless to say it was a good birding place and we would love to stay there again sometime, for a few days walking in the mountains behind.

Beautiful “Cape Dutch” bungalow set in an orange orchard. Ursula and Leah relax on the steps in the evening.

And so to Cape Town the next morning, going via the Cederberg Winery where we stopped to refresh our supplies. Excellent wine if you are interested – we even managed to bring 6 bottles back  to Addis. And in Citrusdal I bought a pair of handmade leather boots from Strassberger’s.

Along the road to the winery we saw 3 Black Eagles which I won’t bore you with. To most people one eagle looks much like another. BUT, we did see 3 Klipspringer (literally Rockjumper) sitting on some rocks by the side of the road, watching the traffic presumably. AND, on the way back we found a largish puffadder sunning itself in the road. About a metre long it was quite cooperative and stayed for a few photos before slithering off into the bush.

A handsome puffadder basking on the road

Male Klipspringer watching the passing traffic.

The female a bit more nervous

Protea in the Cederberg.

We reached Cape Town on the Monday evening. It is always so nostalgic to see Table Mountain again. In Cape Town we stayed with Nicki Westcott in Rondebosch. It was so lovely to see her again, one of my oldest friends.

Table Mountain as we come in through Milnerton.

Relaxing after long drive down. The perfect relaxing couch.

It was great to be back in Cape Town if only for a few days and we managed to catch up with a couple of our friends, Mary Simons, another longtime and dear friend, and with Leah’s husband, Elleck. We also had dinner with Barbara, Martin, Rose and Rose’s beau.

Cooking with Mary (right) and Nicki.

We took the opportunity in Cape Town to make up our cultural deprivation over the last couple of months by going to the William Kentridge exhibitions in the city. The first was in the new gallery at the waterfront. It is a converted grain silo and itself is worth a visit, architecturally fascinating with galleries running around the inside of the building and oval cut-outs in the fabric of the silo providing the light. We also went to a symphony concert at the City Hall, a wonderful evening.

A Kentridge print, “Holding the Fugitive”.

Ursula also went with Leah to a sculpture exhibition by the same artist on display in Constantia. I didn’t go to that, but met up with Mary Simons, and in the afternoon we all met at Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens.

Kentridge sculptures.

Leah had booked a lunch at the Oep ve Koep restaurant at the west coast fishing village of at Paternoster, about 100 km from Cape Town. The restaurant was named the Best Restaurant in the World for 2019 in World Restaurant Awards. We ate at the bistro, there is a 3 month waiting list for the restaurant proper. It uses local meat, seafood, wild plants and seaweeds. Amazing food. I shall try to replicate something similar in NZ next year. Thank you Leah for a memorable afternoon.

Lunch at Oep ve Koep, the name means Open for Business in the local Afrikaans dialect.

On the beach at Paternoster, left to right, Elleck, Leah, Nicki and Chris, the wind behind us.

Launching a local fishing boat at Paternoster.

On Saturday we went to Paarl to meet friends of Leah’s, Erika and Francois Joubert. Barbara and Martin joined us for a lovely day wine tasting. Francois makes his own wine as a hobby and his Pinotage is very good, as are his other wines. I felt quite inspired to try for myself if I can find the time and place. After tasting his wine we went off to a couple of wine farms in the Paarl area and spent several hours tasting and buying wine. They have friends in Addis and we were able to take back a small parcel of for them.

Wine tasting with the Joubert’s

We flew back to Addis on Sunday to discover that we could have got my birth certificate and apostille while we were in Cape Town, had we known in time. Still the rainy season and endless days of gloom and rain. But the good news is we have found a small house, 2 bedrooms and large lounge ‘ dining room, with small garden and lawn surrounded by a boundary of trees and full of birds.

The front of the house.

and small garden.

We will move in at the end of October after Ursula returns from her work trip to Switzerland.

 Many thanks to Leah for inviting us to join her on this trip. Perhaps we will meet in New York someday, or back in South Africa when you return. The trip also reminded us how close South Africa is now that we are back on the African continent. We intend to visit our friends in South Africa more frequently in the future.

.

Cheers for now

Chris and Ursula

Birding from the Balcony.

This week I thought I would share with you some of the bird photos I have taken from our apartment. One of the advantages of living on the second floor is that we are at treetop level with some of the larger trees and look down on the smaller. It also means that often I am looking birds in the eye where normally they would only be seen from below. This gives an unexpected and interesting perspective on the birds of the area. Our immediate area is quite green and a little oasis for the local birds, and so far, I have identified 19 species.

The Black-winged Lovebird is endemic to the woodlands and forests of the highlands of Eritrea and Ethiopia. The wooded areas of Addis allow them to continue in the city, at least for now.

Black-winged Lovebird

Most of the birds we see are naturally the most common, but almost all are new to me and many are unique to the Horn of Africa. The Dusky Turtle dove is found only in East Africa including Eritrea and Ethiopia, but the Red-eyed Dove is widespread across all of Africa south of the Sahara except the drier areas of Botswana and Namibia.

Dusky Turtle Dove

Red-eyed Dove

The Baglafecht Weaver has a remarkably disjunct distribution, with most of the population found in the Horn, but with a smaller population found in Nigeria and Cameroon in West Africa. Like many of the weavers it is a beautiful, vivid yellow colour, or at least the males are.

Baglafecht Weaver

Other birds we know from Zambia or from Sudan like the bee-eaters. Their acrobatic hawking for insects are still a joy to see. These were hawking from the electricity wires outside the front of our building. Like the Gymnogene (below) it is unusual to see these in the city centre.

Blue-breasted Bee-eater

Blue-breasted Bee-eater with bee

Of particular interest was seeing a Gymnogene on the building opposite. Gymnogenes are forest raptors that specialise in robbing nests. They have long legs that enable them to reach deep into nests in trees and holes. This one was trying to rob a Swainson’s Sparrow nest in a hole in the wall where scaffolding poles had been anchored. It is a forest and woodland bird so it was a surprise to see it in the centre of Addis.

Gymnogene - Sorry for the quality but I didn’t have time to put up a tripod and was handholding a 500 mm lens.

Swainson’s Sparrows are very common around here and I have started emptying our bread crumbs onto the small balcony and three of these sparrows are now regular visitors. Endemic to the Horn of Africa, they are almost the embodiment of the an LBJ (Little Brown Job). They are frequently joined on the balcony by Brown-rumped Seed-eaters, another LBJ but easily identified by their strong white eyebrows. They are another endemic to the Horn.

Swainson’s Sparrow

Brown-rumped Seedeater

The Wattled Ibis is another endemic to Eritrea and Ethiopia and is found only in the highlands of the region. It seems to have adapted quite well to the greener areas of the city and they fly over our building every evening. During the day they are often seen in Ghion Park, a park 10 minutes’ walk from us and right in the centre of the city. This one settled on the building opposite the room where I am typing this. I thought it looked quite neat on a building site, not at all its normal habitat of marsh and moorland.

Wattled Ibis

And finally there are Goats in the Garden. Informal urban farming perhaps.

Urban flock

So that’s enough birds for one posting. Once my status is settled and the rains stop it should be possible to get out of Addis to begin our explorations of Ethiopia.

Tomorrow, the 6th September we are going to South Africa for a week. We will be driving down from Jhb to Cape Town and will be back in Addis Abeba on the 15th.

Best wishes to all.

Incidents and Observations

The search for a more permanent place to stay goes on. The place we are in, Bmore Hotel (the owner lived for a number of years in Baltimore in the US), is perfectly satisfactory but expensive and we would also prefer something a little out of the centre. To date we have seen 5 or 6 places, one very promising but the rent is a bit high, so perhaps we can negotiate. We shall see. We have determined on an apartment rather than a house because we will probably we away travelling from time to time, and in our absence we would have to employ a security guard.

As part of this search we spent Sunday afternoon with my friend Sonja and her husband. I knew Sonja in South Africa back in the 1990s. She married Gabri, an Ethiopian, and moved to Addis where she works for a German development NGO. We (Ursula and me) decided we would try out the city’s over-ground rail system and take the train out to meet them at the station at the end of the line, near where they live.

 We expected the train to be relatively empty on a Sunday morning. It was packed. By packed I mean like sardines in a can.  I boarded the train with my cell phone secure in my bag, which I clutched possessively the whole way and a little camera in the top pocket of my denim jacket, securely buttoned down. When we alighted at the end of the journey, I found I had neither. I still do not know how either was “lifted”. Annoying and frustrating to say the least, but a lesson learned.

The best way to get to know a town I think, is to walk as much as possible, at least at the beginning while learning the city’s geography. So I walk as much as I can, to the nearest supermarket, 30 minutes’ walk away, finding the cell phone shop to replace the one stolen. Slowly I am beginning to understand the layout of the city and finding shortcuts to where I want to go.

A fairly typical roadside coffee shop in Ethiopia selling the traditional coffee or bunna in small, espresso like coffee cups.

Of course, there are the usual street vendors selling fruit and vegetables laid out on scrappy bits of tarpaulin; there are dozens of shoeshine “boys” mostly around the 18 to 25-year age group. I have one near the top of our street where I regularly get my shoes cleaned. He is around 20 years old, thin, but not malnourished (how accurate are perceptions?) with an open cheerful face. For the princely sum of 10 birr (the Ethiopian currency) he polishes my shoes to a mirror finish. (10 birr is approx. 30 – 35 US cents). I have tried to find out his name but his knowledge of English is, unusualy, rudimentary and my knowledge of Amharic is no-existent.

 Another common source of income for dozens of small boys (and a few small girls) is weighing you on bathroom scales on the street. You know the sort, a glass plate with a digital read-out. For this you pay 1 birr. Remember there are 30 birr to the US dollar. And everywhere there are the beggars; young women breast-feeding infants, the elderly, men and women, the crippled and the blind.

And then there are the schemers. Walking about I am constantly approached by young men asking how I am, how I like Ethiopia, where I am from, how many children I have, do I want to exchange foreign currency etc. Normally not too much of a problem, but occasionally there are the persistent ones who give the feeling that they are after more than conversation. They seem operate in pairs with one approaching you with a jacket over his arm (they are always male) asking if you want to buy it, with his partner sandwiching you from the other side. As you say “no” they get more and more persistent in their harassment. The other day one of them took hold of me by the arm. Those of you who know me will know that almost never raise my voice in anger. This time I did, halting and shouting at him to let me go and not to hold my arm. My shouting also drew the attention of a passing, large, man who said something to these youths and they left. It was not the first time this had happened to me but they were the most persistent and the first to get that reaction from me.

I find the worst time for being approached like this is in the middle of the afternoon, so I have taken to doing most of my walking in the morning. The streets are less crowded then, but nevertheless I do find it a bit exhausting keeping a wary eye out all the time. In spite of all this I do enjoy my walks, most people are really friendly and smiling and unfailingly polite. Of course, it also depends where you walk. There are a large number number of banks, all with armed guards outside, most big junctions have police and even lorry loads of armed soldiers, and almost every shopping centre, hotel business centre etc have their armed guards on the pavement, so that I can feel relatively safe in those areas.

VW Beetles are ubiquitos in Addis but this one, belonging to the owner of our hotel is the best we have seen. An early 50s model, or perhaps earlier, with a small, split screen, back window.

Addis is crossed by a number of 3 lane double carriage ways. Except that the inside lane is used for taxis stopping and for parking. Leaving only 2 lanes. No problem. It is always possible to add an extra lane so that a 3-lane road becomes, in effect, 4. And of course it is perfectly legal to overtake on whatever side you like. But drivers are polite and considerate slowing down and stopping, if necessary, for pedestrians, or today a legless man crossing the traffic, walking on his hands, and three lanes of traffic just stopping to let him through.

 The traffic looks chaotic at first, but you soon realise that most people are driving very carefully and considerately. They allow other drivers to cut in front of them, give a little toot to warn other drivers they are coming through, but very little aggressive hooting. Wonderful. If only more drivers around the world were like this. The other day I watched a teenager shepherding his flock of 25 – 30 goats across 6 lanes of traffic (3 each way) at rush hour without a single driver hooting as the goats filtered between the cars with the shepherd using only his whistle and thin stick to keep his charges under control.

Sorry for the lack of photos in this blog, but the loss of our palm-sized camera has made taking photographs difficult as I do not like to take my Nikon out onto the street as yet.

Best wishes to all,

Chris and Ursula

ARRIVAL

ARRIVAL

Well, we are in Ethiopia now. We arrived last week on Monday 15th at 6.00 am! By 10 o clock Ursula was in her first engagement at the African Union buildings. Madness I tell you.

We have arrived in the middle of the wet season, so it rains every-day, and often at night as well, usually as thunderstorms. And is quite cold, 12 to 16C (53-60F) and when it rains it feels colder. The other thing about Addis is that it is the third highest capital in the world at 2400 metres (about 7500 feet in old money) and it has taken us a bit by surprise. I am not used to feeling breathless after walking up one flight of stairs. An we need to drink lots of water as we dehydrate very quickly. And alcohol has a completely different effect, getting dehydrated for one. So we are hardly drinking anything, perhaps one beer if we go out.

I had not realised how Addis Ababa has grown over the years since I was here in 2011. Over 8 million people in a huge sprawling city that appears to be one enormous building site. Literally everywhere you look there are new skyscrapers going up, mostly built by the Chinese. We are in an 8-storey apartment block for the time being. Two large bedrooms each with a bathroom, with a lounge and small kitchen and TV in the bedrooms and lounge. And serviced as well so more comfortable than we are generally used too. But this will be temporary given the rent we are paying.

The view to the west from our bedroom. Don’t be fooled by the greenery, it is waste ground waiting for development.

And so to bureaucracy. Excuse me if I spend some time on this, but it is central to our lives at the moment. First our marriage. As you know we were married in Thailand. We have an official translation into English stamped and certified in Laos and with the Germans. With this we have lived in Zambia, the US, Laos of course, Switzerland and the Sudan, and it is also accepted in Germany. But not in Ethiopia. For it to be accepted here we need another translation from a certified Thai translator, and then have the translation certified by the Foreign Office in Germany, and then that must be taken to the Ethiopian Embassy where it must be certified again. Only then can we take it to the relevant Ethiopian government departments here to get me a residence visa.

And similarly, with our driver’s licences. We have to send our International driving licences together with our Swiss driving licences back to Switzerland. There the Foreign Affairs department must certify that they are valid, and then they must be taken to the Ethiopian Embassy in Switzerland to certify that the Swiss stamps are valid. With all that we can then apply for Ethiopian driving licences.

The more observant might have noticed a possible difficulty with all this. Marriage certificates and driving licences do not fall under the Foreign departments. They fall under Home Affairs, but Ethiopia wants Foreign Affairs! We will keep you updated, but I am here on a tourist visa – one month at a time – and this can only be renewed twice.

We did spend a morning attempting to get visas and licences when we first arrived, and that was an experience in itself. The authorities in their wisdom seem to have amalgamated into one office all those things requiring an official stamp. This includes getting your graduation certificates certified, driving licences, marriage certificates et al. So, when we went there was a “queue” (I use the word loosely to describe a long scrum stretching up two flights of stairs). On the land there was something resembling a proper scrum with about 30 people crammed together before a locked door which was opened periodically to let one person through at a time.

The ones remaining on the landing were becoming increasingly angry and impatient. A man in a light blue suit eventually forced his way out and set about shouting, kicking and beating about the head the waiting throng to force them downstairs. He then grabbed Ursula and I and took us inside and told us to wait. He took a cursory look at our documents and told us they were not acceptable! Later we went into an official’s office to argue our case and were confronted by the same man, when he became slightly more reasonable, no shouting, beating and kicking, but told us what stamps we needed. So now we are trying to get the official stamps we need from Switzerland and Germany. Altogether a frustrating experience.

Looking down on a wedding party from the terrace restaurant in Ghion Park.

More pleasantly there is a lovely park 15 minutes’ walk from us, Ghion Hotel and Park. It is a haven for birds in this concrete jungle and also a place for wedding photographs and receptions. We go there for coffees and toasted sandwiches and I go there for birdwatching when it is not raining. I do not get there very often.

As I say, we will keep you informed. I will try to be more regular in our blogs now that we are in Ethiopia. Best wishes to all